The Master's Attitudes 

As Jesus grew to manhood, his perspectives grew with him. The first major attitudinal shift occurred when he was eleven. His mother had complications and severe illness after giving birth to Jesus’ brother, Jude. He and his father were kept busy for several weeks tending to her and the home. Jesus was very much occupied with errands for his father and family duties. Never again did he find it possible to return to the childlike attitude of his earlier years.

When Jesus was seventeen, the Zealots came to Galilee to enlist men in a rebellion against Roman taxation. They were having success until they came to Nazareth and tried to enlist Jesus. He listened to the Zealot recruiters and asked many questions but refused to join them. As a result, about half of the young men of Nazareth also refused the Zealots’ call to arms. From then on, Jesus’ attitude toward civil, political, and social matters was settled. From this incident, he realized how influential he was, and he now knew that his mission was spiritual, not material.

Perhaps the most profound attitudinal transformation in Jesus' life occurred as he approached his thirtieth year. During this pivotal period, he experienced a deepening spiritual awakening that fundamentally altered his perception of his earthly mission. He began to fully comprehend the divine purpose of his incarnation, recognizing that his life was not merely about personal experience but about revealing the nature of God to humanity. This growing understanding prompted a significant shift in his self-conception – from viewing himself primarily as a human son of Joseph and Mary to embracing his dual nature as both human and divine. He now saw himself as a spiritual messenger preparing to progressively disclose the true character of God to a world in need of spiritual enlightenment.

Jesus’ pre-baptismal human nature dictated that his first duty was self-preservation, a legitimate attitude for any human. After his baptism, at age thirty-one, he decided to follow an unnatural course – he decided not to seek self-preservation. He chose a policy of refusing to defend himself. And this attitude served him for the remainder of his life, even during the last and most trying of all his days as a mortal.

Not long after Jesus had ordained his apostles, he taught them what their attitude, as his representatives, should be toward the non-spiritual aspects of living. The following summarizes his teachings:

Political attitude: He cautioned his apostles to be discreet in their remarks concerning the strained relations between the Jewish people and the Roman government. His attitude might best be stated in one of his most famous sayings: "Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and to God the things which are God’s." In his personal life, he was always observant of all civil laws and regulations.

Jesus was not a political reformer. He did not come to reorganize the secular world. Nevertheless, he did show the best way of living, and no generation is exempt from the labor of discovering how best to adapt Jesus’ life to its own problems. He admonished his followers not to make the mistake of identifying his teachings with any political or economic theory – or any social or industrial system.

When Jesus’ teaching touched on religious or political parties – which were usually intertwined – he always said simply: "We are seeking to win all of them, but we are not of any of them."

Social attitude: Jesus presented the idea of active and spontaneous kindness, a love of one’s fellows so genuine that it expanded the neighborhood to include the whole world, thereby making all men one’s neighbors. However, he did not teach his apostles that they were to be imposed upon by social parasites or professional alms-seekers. He made it clear that indiscriminate kindness may be blamed for many social evils.

In all these matters, it was Jesus's practice always to say, "Be as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves." In all social situations, his attitude and example were to practice patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. The nearest he came to making a sociological pronouncement was to say, "Judge not, that you be not judged."

The family occupied the very center of Jesus’ philosophy of social life. He exalted family life as the highest human duty but made it plain that family relationships must not interfere with religious obligations. He repeatedly refused to lay down laws, but many of Jesus’ early followers had strong opinions on social and family matters, and they did not hesitate to attribute them to him.

Art was frowned upon by the moral authorities of Jesus’ people, and idolatry was especially forbidden. But he appreciated the human portrayal of grace and beauty. While visiting the home of a Greek art collector named Flavius, he said: "In the coming age …intelligent men may enjoy the treasures of art without confusing such material appreciation of beauty with the worship and service of the Father in Paradise."

Economic attitude: Jesus was not an economic reformer, although he frequently called attention to the injustice of the unequal distribution of wealth. He recognized the need for social justice and industrial fairness but offered no rules for their attainment.

Jesus never taught his followers to avoid material possessions. He frequently warned his listeners against envy, saying, "A man’s happiness consists not in the abundance of his material possessions." He constantly reiterated, "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" He made no direct attack on the possession of property, but he did insist that it is eternally essential that spiritual values come first. It was not wealth that he denounced but what wealth does to the majority of its devotees.

The cleansing of the temple at Jerusalem revealed Jesus’ attitude toward commercializing the practices of religion as well as his dislike of all forms of unfairness and profiteering at the expense of the poor and the unlearned. This episode also demonstrated that Jesus did not approve of unfair and enslaving practices of unjust minorities who may be able to entrench themselves behind political, financial, or priestly power.

The Master never intended to formulate economic theories; he knew that each age must evolve its own remedies for existing troubles. If Jesus were on earth today, living his life in the flesh, his attitude would be a great disappointment to the majority of good men and women for the simple reason that he would not take sides in present-day political, social, or economic disputes. He would remain grandly aloof while teaching you how to perfect your inner spiritual life so as to render you more competent to address the solution of your purely human problems.

Jesus would make all his followers Godlike and then stand by sympathetically while these children of God solve their own political, social, and economic problems. But he did often say to his followers, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

The Master took the old rule of life, ‘treat others as you would like to be treated,’ to a new and higher level. He taught his apostles and followers to treat one another as God or the Master himself would treat them. One evening, in Lazarus’ garden, Jesus was asked to expand his teaching on the new rule of life. Among many other things, he said this to those gathered around him:

"We attain the level of spirit insight and spiritual interpretation in this command to treat all men as we conceive God would treat them. That is the universe ideal of human relationships. And this is your attitude toward all such problems when your supreme desire is ever to do the Father’s will. I ask that you do to all that which you know I would do to them in like circumstances."

There was another attitude unique to Jesus, one that astonished everyone of his time: he advocated for the equal treatment of women. He even invited them to become evangelists alongside his apostles. In one generation, Jesus lifted women out of disrespectful oblivion and slavish drudgery. And it is the one shameful thing about the religion that presumed to take Jesus’ name that it lacked the moral courage to follow this noble example in its attitude toward women.

Someday, Jesus’ attitude toward women will be fully realized, and true equality will become the standard of civility. Men should never forget that women have forever been the moral standard-bearer and the spiritual leader of mankind. Men and women should not forget that the hand that rocks the cradle still fraternizes with destiny.

Jesus taught everyone that the kingdom of heaven can be best realized by acquiring the spiritual attitude of a sincere child. This usually involves worship and prayer: communion with God. But Jesus never prayed as a religious duty. To him, prayer was a private and sincere expression of his spiritual attitude. The secret of Jesus’ unparalleled religious life was his consciousness of the presence of God, which he attained through intelligent prayer and sincere worship – unbroken communion with God – and not by leadings, voices, visions, or extraordinary religious practices.

Regarding happiness, the Master’s attitude involves sensitivity and responsiveness to human needs. This creates genuine and lasting happiness. And such a kindly attitude safeguards the soul from the destructive influences of anger, hate, and suspicion.

Jesus’ most striking attitude was observed during his unjust arrest, mock trial, and sadistic execution. At court before his Sanhedrin judges, Jesus declined to make replies to the testimony of false witnesses. When the Master was arrested, he knew that his work on earth was finished. He fully understood the sort of death he would die, and he was little concerned with the details of his so-called trial.

His attitude toward the ignorant mortals who persecuted him was fully disclosed by his patience and great self-possession in the face of the jeers and blows of the coarse soldiers and the unthinking servants. He was not even angry when they blindfolded him and, after striking him in the face, exclaimed: "Prophesy to us who it was that struck you."

Jesus said little during these trials, but he said enough to show all mortals and the onlooking universe the kind of attitude and character humans can achieve in partnership with God. He revealed to the universe how God can manifest in mortal life. In his matchless adult life, Jesus never failed to reveal God to man. Now, in these final episodes of his mortal career and his subsequent death, he made a new and touching revelation of man to God.

Jesus well knew it was the will of the Father that he submit himself to the natural and ordinary course of human events just as every other mortal creature must. Therefore, he refused to employ even his human powers to influence the outcome of his trial. He had acquired a characteristic attitude that could preserve his composure and assert his dignity in the face of continued and unjustified insult. He could not be intimidated.

When Caiaphas challenged Jesus to confirm whether he claimed to be the Son of God, Jesus replied simply and confidently, "I am." Jesus’ fearless attitude and courageous honesty provided the "proof" Caiaphas needed as a basis for convicting the Master of blasphemy. Throughout the whole sorrowful ordeal, his attitude was one of simple dignity and unpretentious majesty.

Finally, when Jesus was nailed to a cross, never once did he indulge in anger, vengeance, or self-pity. He did not lash out at his persecutors or swear at his fate. His unwavering attitude of love and mercy during the final episodes of his mortal career and in his excruciating death made a new and touching revelation of man to God. Through it all, he never doubted that death was the gateway to resurrection and eternal life.